Teaching Resource

What conditions created the need for a protest march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, in 1965, and what did that march achieve?

Background

Throughout American history, African Americans have struggled to gain basic civil rights, such as the right to vote. When marchers gathered at the foot of the Edmund Pettus Bridge, in Selma, Alabama, on March 7, 1965, to demand voting rights, the nation was forced to acknowledge the depth and breadth of racial discrimination and bigotry that existed in the...